James Galway vs. Hawaii Opera Theatre

It’s a shame that two wonderful musical events conflicted with each other on Saturday night. Hawaii Opera Theatre held its annual Opera Ball at the Sheraton Waikiki at the same time that renowned flutist Sir James Galway was performing with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra at Blaisdell Concert Hall. The opera’s black-tie gala is its largest fundraiser of the year, so of course we hope it did well. But the audience for Galway’s incredible performance at the Concert Hall was relatively sparse.

The opportunity to attend truly world-class performances doesn’t occur every Saturday night in Honolulu. Let’s hope that next year these two institutions don’t compete for an audience that would surely enjoy attending both events.

Here come the trees, and their inspectors

All we want for Christmas is … a slug-free tree? The manager of the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s Nursery and Christmas Tree programs assures Hawaii residents that officials are taking "extraordinary measures" to ensure that holiday pines shipped are not infested with banana slugs or other pests, as many trees were last year.

Three entomologists from Oregon are on hand to spot any pests that eluded cargo loaders in the Pacific Northwest. The first big shipment of trees arrived in Honolulu over the weekend. Ho ho ho!